Time is running out for Sacramento to save the Rio City Cafe from the city’s neglect | Opinion

Congratulations, City Manager Howard Chan, Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the Sacramento City Council. You are hours from driving one of the city’s venerable restaurants out of business, with precious time to come to your senses.

The 30-year run of the Rio City Cafe on the Sacramento River is about to come to an end. The city shut down the restaurant’s popular river deck in April due to safety concerns. But the city is the landlord and is contractually responsible for maintaining the deck in good condition. With the city having no firm plan to ever fix the deck, its long-time owners have decided to call it quits after Saturday.

“I’m heartbroken,” said Stephanie Miller, one of the long-time owners. “I’m heartbroken for our guests. And I’m mostly heartbroken for our staff, because we are a family at Rio.”

City spokeswoman Jennifer Singer said that Rio City “has been a great partner of the City, and we thank them for serving the community on the Old Sacramento Waterfront for over 30 years. While there is no specific date for redeveloping the waterfront, the City of Sacramento is examining the opportunity to reimagine and redevelop this iconic area, including the space that houses Rio City Cafe.”

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Meanwhile, imagine an empty restaurant and a rotting deck just across the river from where the Oakland Athletics will play Major League Baseball when they come to town for what is billed as a temporary stint starting next spring.

Mayor Steinberg had previously wanted a riverfront legacy as part of his eight-year tenure on the job. Last week he made noise about trying to do something about the Rio City Cafe, followed by stony silence.

“I’m bringing forward a waterfront plan this summer that includes the dock and deck repairs as a first phase,” Steinberg said last week. But that dubious plan is too late for a restaurant that has paid its rent to the city every month for 30 years, and gotten precious little in return.

Steinberg’s Old Sacramento legacy will be based on whether he left the district in better condition than when he took office. His large hand in leaving the Rio City abandoned and empty basically speaks for itself.

“I have really begged,” said Miller, of her outreach to the city. “I pleaded and tried. And they just don’t want to do it. You know, after 30 years, that’s tough to swallow.”

Even former Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo made a last-ditch plea in a notice Sunday to the mayor and the City Council.

“Just direct your city manager to find the money,” she wrote. “There are plenty of programs to support new businesses, and an obscene amount of money for consultants to help business districts, infrastructure projects and staff.”

The city’s decision to forsake a crown jewel in Old Sacramento is nothing short of a middle finger to its residents and tourists who love and visit this historic district.

Yes, the city has chronic financial issues and struggled to balance its $1.6 billion annual budget. But neglecting the Rio City Cafe is one of the dumbest things the city could do to save a buck.

The state leased this riverfront property to the city years ago. City officials leased the restaurant to the Miller family. The lease reads as follows: “The city shall provide access to, and maintain in good condition and repair at its cost….maintenance of the existing decking within the leased premises.”

Failing to maintain the deck in good condition reads like a contraction violation, a breach.

Co-owner Jimmy Gayaldo estimated that the river deck generated about 70 percent of the restaurant’s business. Letting the deck fall into disrepair has had fatal consequences for the restaurant.

For a city manager who led the state making nearly $600,000 last year, Sacramento didn’t exactly get its money’s worth out of Chan when it comes to the Rio City. He did not even place on the agenda a council discussion about what to do with the restaurant any time after 2022. Yet essentially forcing this restaurant to close because of an abandoned deck was never going to fly under the radar. He basically set up the mayor and the council to look really horrible, take the hit, without them having any part of the staff decision.

But in this case, blaming staff doesn’t go far enough.

Chan has nine bosses on the city council. Steinberg. Rick Jennings. Eric Guerra. Lisa Kaplan. Mai Vang. Caity Maple. Katie Valenzuela. Karina Talamantes. Shoun Thao. On any given day, they let Chan run them rather than the other way around. They need to own this heartless decision. While well-intentioned people, this mayor and this council ultimately own the fate of the Rio City Cafe.

Meanwhile, I don’t want to “reimagine” the waterfront in Old Sacramento, as city staff wants me to. I want the city to be much better financial stewards of its signature investments.

“I’ve always wanted to keep Rio open for our staff and our customers,” Miller said. But now, she simply can’t. The city saw to that. The Rio City Cafe is poised to close for good after the close of Saturday’s dinner. Unless saner heads prevail.

The emerging Sacramento cannot fix its river deck, but it sure can increase every fee imaginable, including the imposition of Sunday parking charges downtown. What’s happening at this river restaurant is not an isolated incident. This is a city on financial autopilot with basic services and maintenance going downhill, with nobody owning reality.